Initially, users were limited to functionality that was available locally on their respective computers, such as through execution of applications and games on processors of the computer, accessing local storage of data from a memory of the computer, and so on. With the advent of the Internet, however, users gained access to a wide variety of functionality from all over the world, such as to web pages, downloadable songs, “ecommerce” electronic bill payers, and other web services.
In some instances, however, access to all or parts of the functionality is limited to particular users. Therefore, credentials may be supplied by the users (e.g., user name and password) to authenticate the user, i.e., to determine the identity of the user and whether the user is permitted to access the functionality.
Traditional techniques that were used by users to login to the web services, however, were impersonal and therefore “distanced” the user from the experience. For example, once the user was logged on to a web service, the user may obtain data that is personal to the user to personalize the user's experience with the web service. Before that logon, however, information output to the user using traditional techniques did not differentiate that user from any other user that attempted to access the web service.